This invention relates generally to agricultural equipment and, more particularly, to an agricultural implement that does not merely clear away material on top of a ground surface but rather is able to furrow the soil, break up the material so it can be incorporated into the ground or decomposed. The agricultural implement also provides for the leveling of the soil and uprooting of weeds.
Farmed land by its nature undergoes cyclic periods of sowing, growth, and harvest. Sowing, growing and harvesting of crops all require the certain conditioning of the soil if successful returns are going to be obtained from the worked area. Conditions left over a farmed area particularly after harvest do not normally provide the ideal conditions in which further crops can be sowed. When the main crop is harvested the soil often includes weeds that need to be destroyed as well as stubble and the like from previous crops requiring uprooting and cutting before any seed can be sowed.
Not only does stubble require uprooting or cutting and weeds still need to be killed off, but there is also the further requirement of having the soil leveled such that sowing implements responsible for reintroducing a new crop into the field can do so efficiently and expeditiously.
Though in the past various agricultural implements have been provided that attempt to address certain of the above referenced ground engaging problems associated with uprooting or cutting of stubble, killing of weeds and also leveling, as to date there is yet to be provided one multi purpose simple structural agricultural piece of apparatus that can achieve all these objectives when engaging a ground surface. Further, existing proposals may even lead to an exaggeration of some of the problems also discussed above.
For example, a Russian patent referred to as SU1523061 discloses a heavy chain having a sequence of interconnected links that may be pulled along by a tractor or the like. The chain is able to pick up any debris, stubble or other material left on the surface and as it works its way across a field, it essentially drags this material like a rake, and slowly levels out the ground left behind. A problem with this construction is that as the chain has no special characteristics other than simply being interconnected links with no set rotation or the like, the chain simply operates like one large heavy broom or rake which would carry the material along in a sweeping action rather than have the material settle in situ as part of the leveling process.
The chain in this Russian invention has no capabilities of killing weeds that remain on the surface nor can it effectively uproot or cut stubble and leave such material in place. As explained above, rather than simply uprooting or cutting the stubble left on the surface, the chain would pull and sweep this material away from the location from where it was originally derived from. Hence, the swept away material has no opportunity to decompose and return to the soil. At best the agricultural implement was adapted to ground engage in SU1523061 for a raking effect of the ground by virtue of blades or spikes that preceded the chain, and thereafter a flattening or sweeping effect was provided for by the chain. The mere raking of material on the land being tillaged is undesirable as it removes important nutrient derivable from the stubble and the like and also exposes fresh soil to wind erosion and the like.
There have been further proposal whereby chains have been used to address some of the problems discussed above, but again each of these agricultural implements, in seeking to solve the problem of one aspect, tend to exaggerate problems associated with the other aspects. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,682 provides for an agricultural implement in which a rotating flexible chain can assist in soil erosion control. Nonetheless, the intended purpose of the invention is simply to slow down erosion by controlling water movement, which is done by the creation of dimples or miniature dams or the like across the ground surface as the chain is passed there along. The creation of these dimple features results from the unique baffles or blades that extend out from longitudinal links. Though the chain is being pulled along by a tractor or the like, it still does not have a multi-purpose function that is able to provide ground leveling, weed control and stubble break up substantially in situ. As with the chain provided for in the Russian document referred to above, all this chain does is provide a raking effect.
Although the devices proposed by SU745395 and SU982551 are potentially able to provide some ground leveling effect, there is no mechanism to break up stubble, nor is there the ability to control the weed, by cutting up the weeds with the action of some further structural feature.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have an agricultural device that does not just clear away material from the top of a ground surface, but rather breaks up the material and furrows the ground so that the broken up material may be incorporated into the soil or decomposed. Further, it would be desirable to have an agricultural implement that levels a ground surface, does not allow its chain harrows to become high centered, and which includes auxiliary and redundant harrows for efficient and complete breaking up and harrowing of surface materials and soil.